Charles Fort was born August 6th, 1874. In 1916, he recieved a small inheritance that allowed him to do what he wanted for the rest of his life. For Fort, that was rummaging through old newspapers and scientific journals, picking out everything excluded by science. He called these "The Damned". He collected reports of meteorites falling from the sky, in a time when all of the "experts" agreed there was no such thing.

Aside from throwing mounds and mounds of cited reports at his readers, he also tosses in some incredible commentary. Here are a few snippets, for you edification.

"Would we, if we could, educate and sophisticatepigs, geese, cattle?
Would it be wise to establish diplomatic relation with the hen that now functions, satisfied with mere sense of achievement by way of compensation?
I think we're property.
I should say we belong to something:
That once upon a time, this earth was No-man's Land, that other worlds explored and colonized here, and fought among themselves for possession, but that now it's owned by something:
That something owns this earth-all others warned off."